The historical roots of the Department of Social Psychology of the I.I. Mechnikov Odesa National University are closely connected with the history of the development of domestic psychology as a science in Ukraine and the names of such prominent psychologists as M.M. Lange, D.G. Elkin, I.H. Bilyavskyi, B.I. Tsukanov et al.

In 1865, after the transformation of the Richelieu Lyceum into the University, a department of pedagogy was opened at it, on the basis of which in 1896 M.M. Lange created the first psychological laboratory in Russia.

A worthy successor at I.I. Mechnikov Odesa State University of historical traditions in psychological science, which go back to I.M. Sechenov , I.I. Mechnikov , M.Ya. Grot , M.M. Lange , became David Henrikhovich Elkin (1895-1983), who worked at the Odesa State University named after I.I. Mechnikov from 1933 to 1976 (he received the title of professor in 1934). In 1952 , D.G. Elkin successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the topic "Perception of time", in which he confirmed the assumptions of I.M. Sechenov about the decisive role of hearing in the perception of time. After defending the thesis,  D.G. Elkin was awarded the degree of Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences (in psychology). He presented the generalized results of his research in the monograph "Perception of Time", for which he received the First Prize named after K.D. Ushinsky.

The works of D.G. Elkin , the department of pedagogy is actually being transformed into the department of pedagogy and psychology, which was established, taking into account the wartime, only in 1945, and since 1960 the department of psychology has become independent. Professor D.G.  Elkin , in co-authorship with other researchers, published a number of studies on the history of domestic psychology, which were awarded the second prizes named after K.D. Ushinsky.

For his scientific activity D.G. Elkin was awarded the medal "For valiant work in the Great Patriotic War", and in 1965, in connection with the centenary of the Odesa State University named after I.I. Mechnikov, he was awarded the honorary title of Honored Scientist of the Ukrainian SSR .

Under the leadership of D. G. Elkin , a scientific school with the research topic "Psychology of time differentiation" was organized at the Odesa I. I. Mechnikov State University, in which a number of experimental studies are carried out, which confirm that time perception is a process of modeling the time parameters of a stimulus. The results of these studies formed the basis of the report by D.G. Elkin at the XVIII International Psychological Congress in Moscow (1966), where D.G. Elkin led the work of the "Perception of space and time" section. In 1973, in Tbilisi, at the International Psychological Congress dedicated to the unconscious, D.G. Elkin gave a speech "Counting time in the state of sleep and hypnosis." He was an active participant not only in international, but also in numerous all-Union psychological congresses and conferences. At the invitation of the director of the All-Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Psychology H.S. Kostyuk, David Henrikhovich worked as a professor in the laboratory of this institute for the study of cognitive processes and wrote the chapters "Feelings" and "Perception" for the textbook "Psychology" edited by H.S. Kostyuk was published for the first time in Ukrainian.

Full of creative ideas, D.G. Elkin conducted research in the field of engineering psychology. He developed electronic skin watches, a bioelectric hand prosthesis. In the field of legal psychology, he was interested in the motivation of offenses, the peculiarities of human behavior in conditions of solitary confinement.

Under the leadership of D.G. Elkin , a laboratory of experimental psychology worked as part of the department from the moment of its foundation until 1974.

The scientist has more than 200 works on general, child and pedagogical psychology, engineering psychology, history of psychology, animal psychology. His works were included in the two-volume "Psychological science in the USSR " and in the four-volume "Basics  of psychology", collection "40 years of Soviet of psychology ".

During the leadership of D.G. Elkin, the department held 7 conferences, among which it is necessary to note the conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of M.M. Lange (1958), and the conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Odessa State University (1965).

In 1976 , D.G. Elkin to his health, Elkin is moving to the position of a consulting professor. The scientific direction "Psychology of time differentiation" was headed by student D.G. Elkin - Boris Yosypovich Tsukanov, who built a holistic concept of psychological time based on the experimental measurement of its unit.

Today, the name of D.G. Elkin is commemorated on a memorial plaque on the facade of the Main Building of the I.I. Mechnikov Odesa National University.

For a short time - from 1976 to 1978 - Viktor Omelyanovych Kotov-Khromenko (September 29, 1924-September 27, 1978) headed the Department of Psychology, a combat artillery officer who died early.

V.O. Kotov-Khromenko from August 1941 to 1945, fought on the Southern, Central and First Baltic Fronts as a battery commander of artillery units, and was wounded several times. After the war, he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Odesa I.I. Mechnikov State University, entered graduate school at the Department of Psychology of the Odesa Pedagogical Institute, and defended his PhD thesis on the topic "Peculiarities of time perspective in a child of secondary school age" (1957). From 1956 to 1960, he was a senior lecturer at the Department of Psychology at I.I. Mechnikov Odesa State University. From 1960 to 1971, he worked as vice-rector for scientific work at the Odesa Pedagogical Institute, then as the head of the Department of Psychology at the Pedagogical Institute.

V.O. Kotov-Khromenko was selected for the position of head of the Department of Psychology at Odesa I.I. Mechnikov State University in 1976 and managed the department until September 1978. He was the author of 33 scientific publications, in particular, a monograph devoted to the problems of managing the learning process in higher education institutions.

From 1978 to 1987, Tetyana Mykhailivna Kozina was the head of the Department of Psychology. Under her leadership, the department was recognized as one of the best at the I.I. Mechnikov Odesa State University as a result of the socialist competition. T. M. Kozina 's research work was carried out within the main topic of the department - the psychology of perception. T.M. Kozina has 72 scientific publications. For her achievements in scientific and pedagogical activity, she was awarded the badge of the Ministry of Higher Education of the USSR "For excellent work".

In 1987, Professor Ilya Hryhorovych Bilyavskyi replaced T.M. Kozin as the head of the Department of Psychology. It was on his initiative at the Odesa I.I. Mechnikov State University named after In 1989, the department of general and social psychology was founded at University, and in 1992, a psychological department was opened at the mechanical and mathematical faculty, where the training of psychology students began for the first time in the history of the university.

I.H.  Bilyavskyi is one of the founders of historical psychology and the founder of the Odessa scientific school of historical psychology, the ideas and approaches of which were further developed in the works of his students. In Odessa, he wrote and prepared for publication several monographs and textbooks. Under the leadership of I.H. Bilyavsky, the S.L. Rubinstein readings dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of S.L. were organized and held. Rubinstein (1989) and the conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of D.G. Elkin (1995).

I.H. Bilyavskyi owns more than 150 printed works, 6 monographs, a number of training manuals. In 1998, he was elected an academician of the International Academy of Psychological Sciences. Currently, at the Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University continues the tradition of teaching historical psychology as an educational discipline, as well as introducing special courses on ethnic psychology, psychology of religion, acmeology, etc., which develop the problems of the Odessa School of Historical Psychology.

In his works, the scientist predicted an increase in the importance of the humanitarian component of psychological science. The development of the Odesa School of Historical Psychology continues, young psychologists-scientists of the Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University and other scientific institutions of Ukraine are included in its orbit.

With the name of Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor Boris Yosypovich Tsukanov, a student of D.G. Elkin , related development of the ideas of the psychology of time and the creation in 2003 of a separate department of differential and experimental psychology, which he headed. Since January 2008, the department has been headed by Professor, Doctor of Psychological Sciences Tetyana Pavlivna Viskovatova .

In 2004, Valentina Ivanivna Podshivalkina - doctor of sociological sciences, professor - was elected the head of the department of general and social psychology.

In 2011, the Institute of Mathematics, Economics and Mechanics of Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University was reorganized: on the basis of the Department of Differential and Experimental Psychology, the Department of Differential and Special Psychology was created (the head of the department is Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor T.P. Viskovatova ) , and two were created on the basis of the department of general and social psychology: the department of general psychology and psychology of personality development (the head of the department is the doctor of psychological sciences, professor Z.O. Kireeva ) and the department of social and applied psychology (the head of the department is the doctor of sociological sciences, professor V .I . Podshivalkina).

The development and use of socio-humanitarian technologies is an important achievement of humanitarian knowledge, in particular psychology, sociology, political science and others, and it is in this direction that the well-known founder of the scientific school of socio-humanitarian technologies, Doctor of Sociology, Professor V.I. Podshivalkina, worked in this direction . On the basis of the concept of the technological picture of the world developed by her, the original conceptual model and typology of social technology, for the first time the peculiarities of the horizontal and vertical career of specialists, the professional self-determination of graduates of higher education institutions were substantiated from the technological standpoint, the conceptual and categorical apparatus of the social phenomenon of career was improved , on based on the application of concepts that describe the basic characteristics of biographical processes, a topology of workers was developed.

In 2022, as a result of the reorganization of the Department of Social and Applied Psychology and the Department of Social Theories, the Department of Social Psychology was created, headed by Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor Oksana Ivanivna Kononenko. She is a continuation of the traditions started by her teacher Bilyavskyi I.H.